Wastebook - Senator Tom Coburn - U.S. Senate

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Wastebook 2013Some of the recent website topics include:• Team Edward or Team Jacob? “Are heroes like Edward romantic or controlling?” pondersthe Popular Romance Project website, referring to the vampire character in the Twilight. 43• Call Me Maybe: The Popular Romance Project website celebrates Carly Rae Jepsen’s hitsong “Call Me Maybe” as a “fun, flirty invitation to a dreamy crush” and examines how thesong’s video has provokes some “very interesting conversations about contemporaryromance.” 44• The Spy Who Loved Me: The romance of British Secret Service Agent James Bond, 007, isexamined by the Popular Romance Project website, noting that “the recurrent death ofromance is fundamental to the 007 franchise. What can popular romance scholars make ofthis motif?” 45While supporters note that “in some ways, romance novels are the dirty little secret of the literaryworld” and “largely ignored by mainstream critics, regularly maligned by academics, and sometimeshidden away even by their readers,” they hope this project will change that impression–all with theassistance of the federal government. 46 In addition to the NEH financial aid, the Library of Congress isplanning symposium to “explore the past and future of the romance novel form, scheduled to coincidewith the release” of the “Love Between theCovers” documentary “around Valentine’sDay 2015.” 47“Are heroes like Edward romantic or controlling?” is one of themany topics related to love and romance the Popular RomanceProject website explores.NEH has invested nearly $1 million in thisproject over the past three years. InSeptember, NEH issued a $250,000 grantfor the “production of an interactive,multifaceted website that would serve as ananchor for the Popular Romance Project, amultimedia project on the writing,production, and consumption of popularromance literature.” 48 Last October, NEHprovided $616,000 for the “production of atwo-hour documentary about the historyand context of the romance novel and theglobal community built around a massproducedpopular cultural product” to bespent this year and next. 49 In 2010, NEHawarded a two year grant totaling $48,000for the “planning and scripting for a film, a symposium, and reading and discussion programs on howromance literature reflects universal themes of courtship, love, and intimacy” 50 as well as travel toconferences about romance novels. 51NEH may love to waste money on this project, but taxpayers are likely to feel jilted about subsidizingthe promotion of a billion dollar industry that generated over $1.4 billion in 2012, and remains as hotas ever. 528
Wastebook 20134. Obama Administration Studies American’s Attitudes Towards Filibuster asSenate Majority Leader Eliminates the Longstanding Senate Right to Debate– (MO) $251,525What makes the world’s greatest deliberative body sodeliberative?Up until last month, every member of the U.S. Senate had theright to speak for as long as he or she wished, even if doing sodelayed votes or other business.The iconic 1939 movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington dramatizedthe power of the filibuster to influence public opinion byutilizing unlimited debate to bring truths to light.While the majority often grumbles that the filibuster is nothingmore than an obstructionist tactic, it is one that has long beenutilized to force open debate, improve legislation, bringconsensus, and even halt legislation or nominations. Asdesigned, only a supermajority could cut off deliberations byinvoking cloture, after which an additional 30 hours of debatetime still remained, thereby empowering any senator’sviewpoint to be heard.While control of the Senate and the White House has changedover the past decade, opinion polls during this period haveconsistently indicated there is no overwhelming desire from thepublic to eliminate the filibuster.But in November, the Senate Majority Leader broke thelongstanding rules of the Senate that require 67 votes to changethese procedures and killed the filibuster with a bare majority of51 other senators. The filibuster was eliminated forconsideration of most presidential nominations requiring Senateconfirmation, thereby “eliminating the ability of the SenateThe classic American movie Mr. Smith Goesto Washington dramatized the power of thefilibuster to influence public opinion byutilizing unlimited debate to bring truthsto light. Today’s Senate majority wouldessentially tell Mr. Smith to “shut up andsit down.” The Obama Administration isspending a quarter-of-a-million dollars toexamine the public’s opinion of theparliamentary tactic, which the Presidentsupports eliminating, while cutting offfederal support for hundreds of scientificproposals.minority to filibuster executive branch nominees and any judgeship below the Supreme Court.” 53 TheSenate Majority Leader has since hinted “that at some point the filibuster may end entirely, and notjust for nominations,” but also for legislation. He stated if the leader of the Senate “decides that’s whatthey want to do, then they can have a vote before the full Senate and decide if that’s what they want todo.” He noted “the Senate is a democratic body; it always has been. We work on collegiality just likejudges do. But there comes a time when collegiality breaks down and you have to do something.” 54While the Majority Leader believes it is democratic to end this longstanding right of all senators, amajority of voters feels the opposite. Quinnipiac University conducted two polls in recent years onthe subject and both found a lack of majority support for killing the filibuster. Most Americansbelieved it would be a “bad idea” to eliminate the filibuster. 55 Another poll found the lack of supportfor ending the filibuster statistically unchanged, with just 42 percent saying it would be a good idea. 569
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Wastebook 201340. Bridge to Nowhere
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Wastebook 2013$17 trillion national
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Wastebook 2013868 Payment Accuracy.
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Wastebook 2013909 Plungis, Jeff,
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